Device for feeding comminuted material to furnaces.



PATENTED JAN- 2. 1907 No. 842,034. I o. G. SMITH.

DEVICE FOR FEEDING GOMMINUTED MATERIAL TO FURNACES.

APPLIGA'I'ION FILED OCT, 12. 1906.

I INVENTUR l1 TTUWVE Q M RW THE NORRIS PETERS co., wnsumqrou, D. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT oEEIoE.

CLEMENT Gr. SMITH, OF LEBANON, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO THE PENNSYLVANIA STEEL COMPANY, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVA- NIA, A CORPORATION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 22, 1907.

Application filed October 12. 1906. Serial No. 338,633.

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, CLEMENT G. SMITH, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city and countyof Lebanon, State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Devices for Feeding Comminuted Material to Furnaces, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, of which- Figure 1 is a sectional elevation through the stack-chamber of a rotary roasting-furnace, showing the upper end of the rotary cylinder thereof and my feeding device in connection therewith. Fig. 2 is a transverse section as on the line no :20, Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the feed-wheel detached.

The object of this invention is to provide a convenient and efficient means for feeding powdered or concentrated material, such as comminuted ore, to furnaces, more particularly to the upper end of the ordinary rotary roasting-furnaces.

Heretofore difiiculty has been experienced in feeding comminuted ore to rotary furnaces when the ore is damp or wet, as is usually the case, for when in such condition the ore will not properly and regularly pass through the ordinary type of screw feeder.

In carrying out my invention I provide adjacent the upper end of the rotary furnace and mounted on a shaft at right angles to the axis thereof a rotating wheel provided with suitably-spaced buckets or compartments into which the comminuted ore is fed in measured quantities through a chute and which wheel throws the ,ore forward in a more or less scattered stream into the upper end of the rotating furnace.

In the drawings, 1 is the usual stackchamber communicating with the stack or chimney 2, into which chamber extends the upper end of an inclined rotarylroasting-cylinder 3. Extending across the stack-chamber at right angles to the axis of and slightly below the center of the cylinder 3 is a horizontal shaft 4, journaled in the said walls of the stack-chamber and extending through one of the same, being provided on its outer end with a pulley 5, by which said shaft may be driven from a suitable source of power.

Mounted on said shaft in the same vertical plane as the axis of the rotary cylinder 3 is a wheel 6, having end flanges 7 and cross-partitions 8, connecting the same to form buckets or compartments 9 therebetween. Extending upwardly through the stack-chamber from a point above and adjacent the upper part of said wheel 6 is a chute or conduit 10.

Having described the construction of my invention, I shall describe its mode of operation as follows: The cylinder 3 being rotated and the roasting-flame extending there through from the lower end to the stack chamber in the usual manner, power is applied to the shaft 4 to rotate the same in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 1. The comminuted ore to be fed to the furnace is fed down the chute or conduit 10 in suitablymeasured quantities, by hand or by a suitable measuring device. (Not shown.) Said comminuted ore passing downwardly through said chute is delivered into the successive compartments 9, from which it is ejected substantially tangentially by the centrifugal action of the rotating wheel, thereby throwing into the upper end of the cylinder the comminuted ore in a substantially uniform and diffused stream, regardless of whether the said ore be dry or wet.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1. In a furnace-feeding apparatus, the combination, with the roasting-furnace having an open end, of a wheel j ournaled adj acent the opening in said furnace, said wheel comprising a series of peripheral open pockets, and means for feeding material to said pockets; said wheel being rotatable to cause material fed to said pockets to be ejected therefrom into the open end of said furnace, substantially as set forth.

2. In a furnace-feeding apparatus, the combination, with the rotary roasting-furnace having an open end, of a wheel journaled adjacent the opening in said furnace; said wheel being provided with a series of peripheral open pockets; and means for feed ing material to said pockets; said wheel being so mounted as to be rotatable in a plane substantially at right angles to the major axis of said rotary furnace, whereby material fed to said pockets is ejected therefrom into the open end of said furnace, substantially as set forth.

3. In a furnace-feeding apparatus, the combination, with the stack-chamber, of the rotary roasting-furnace having an open end communicating therewith; the horizontal rotary. shaft extending through the stackchamber substantially at right angles to the major axis of said furnace; the wheel provided with the series of peripheral open pockets, said wheel'being mounted upon said shaft and extending into the open end of said furnace; together with the chute whose upper end extends exterior to said stack-chamer, and whose lower end is above and adj acent the periphery of said wheel, whereby material fed to the upper end of said chute CLEMENT SMITH.

Witnesses:

FRANois BIRD DUTToN, BENJAMIN EDWARD MoKEoHINE. 

